Volume 5 only of the 10-volume Troppau edition of the natural history of quadrupeds, composed by the French natural scientist Georges Louis de Buffon (1707-88), translated by Friedrich Heinrich Wilhelm Martini and Bernhard Christian Otto, being the second German edition. Covering 17 different species of mammals and colourfully depicting many of them, with the largest part dedicated to the family of bats, this work represents a climax of 18th century zoology. Published under the original title "Les quadrupèdes", a subtitle of his "Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière", which was translated into many languages, this monumental work made Buffon one of the most widely read authors of his time. - Contemporary ownership to lower pastedown ("Albertine Moser 7 Jahr alt"). Wants pp. 5f., 119-122, 279f., 295-298. Top spine end chipped. Somewhat browned and brownstained throughout. Very small hole to pp. 79f. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel, with his ownership stamp to pastedown. {BN#48895}

Volume 4 only of the extensive collection on the natural history of birds, originally composed by the French natural scientist Georges Louis de Buffon (1707-88), translated by Friedrich Heinrich Wilhelm Martini and Bernhard Christian Otto. The present copy is part of the 23-volume edition published in Brno and Troppau from 1786 until 1789, being the second edition in German. Covering more than 30 different species of bustards, chickens and fowl, many of them displayed colourfully, this volume can be considered a prominent work of 18th century zoology. Published under the original title "Histoire naturelle des oiseaux", a subtitle of his "Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière", which was translated into many languages, this monumental work made Buffon one of the most widely read authors of his time. Includes the 24 engraved plates, plus one additional plate originating from volume 8. - Spine insignificantly rubbed, spine-ends scuffed. Subtitle erased from title-page. Significant paper flaws to pp. 27f and 96 with substantial text loss; a small hole in pp. 93f. A few pages a little wrinkled, somewhat browned and brownstained throughout. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel, with his ownership stamp to flyleaf. {BN#48894}

First and only Italian edition of George Cheyne's final work (1742), translated by a Florentine physician who attests to Cheyne's enormous popularity in England and addends a brief life of the celebrated doctor to the work. At the same time as Newton's geophysical ideas were being introduced into Italy (against some opposition!), the present work would indicate that Newtonian medicine (of the Edinburgh school) was also in circulation. - The present translation is dedicated to the Venetian Ambassador in London, Lorenzo Morosini, who during his residence "has had leisure to observe the great strides in Medical Science in that country". Most striking are Mei's repeated references to Cheyne as "one of the greatest modern luminaries of the Medical Arts, standing alongside Hippocrates amongst the ancients and the great Sydenham amongst the moderns". - George Cheyne (1671/2-1743) became one of the most prominent defenders of the Newtonian system of medicine in Edinburgh before moving to London in 1701. He was decidedly unsuccessful as a physician in his earlier years, and retreated to Aberdeen in 1705. "Little is known about the period between 1705, when Cheyne suffered his collapse, and 1715, when he re-emerged to the public…" (DNB). However, several of his later works proved immensely popular, among these the present one; according to the DNB the Natural Method "gives the fullest exposition of his mature thought… It both summarized his earlier ideas and added new material. In a section addressed specifically to women, he detailed his preformationist views on generation…". After an inauspicious start, Cheyne appears to have developed his career considerably; Gilbert Burnet and Hans Sloane are said to have referred their patients to him, and his Essay of Health and Long Life (1724) "made him one of the best-known physicians in Britain" (DNB). - Like Sydenham, Cheyne's works managed to reach foreign audiences; a French translation of the Natural Method appeared in 1749, while Cheyne's other works also enjoyed translations into Latin and Dutch. Cosimo Mei's introduction of the English physician to the Italian public is accompanied by a woodcut vignette and a quotation from Virgil, a life of Cheyne, and two prefatory notes to the reader explaining the circumstances of its publication. {BN#10418}

A remarkable sammelband of three rare architectural and garden ornament works (the first in two parts), all of which were published by the important Augsburg print publisher Johann Andreas Pfeffel. I: First and only edition of a very scarce ornamental garden pattern book by the newly appointed court gardener and inspector of the Salzburg gardens, Franz Anton Danreiter (1695-1760). In 1728 Danreiter was appointed court gardener and inspector to related buildings by the ducal bishop of Salzburg. He translated Dezallier's "La Theorie et la Pratique du Jardinage" into German and became one of the more important mediators of French garden design to the German-speaking countries. His own designs issued in the present work, in two parts, with the second part particularly rare, show more than 100 ornamental and fanciful planting patterns on 42 plates. This was his first and rarest model book with garden plans for parterres. They show that far from endlessly repeating the strict symmetrical canon of French Baroque garden design, Danreiter developed a never-ending variety in ornamental designs which herald the German rococo. Danreiter served five successive bishops in Salzburg. Between 1727 and 1735 he also engraved a number of large-scale views of the city which represent a unique documentation of Salzburg in its 18th century baroque glory. - II: First edition of Steingruber's first published architectural book, showing designs for town houses and palaces. In total Steingruber shows seven scaled designs from a garden pavilion in an aristocratic park (2), several ever more lavish town houses for the haute bourgeois (4), and finally a ducal residence (1). Each design is shown in as much detail as possible with elevations and plans, but also several sections. The grander houses are shown with views of street and garden elevations; some designs have differently laid out plans. The architect J. D. Steingruber (1702-87) was appointed court architect by the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1734. In the course of his near sixty-year tenure of this position he was able to transform the townscape of Ansbach after his own designs. He is best remembered for his playful "Architektonisches Alphabet" (1773), a remarkable series of designs in which each building has a ground plan based on a different letter in the alphabet. - III: Scarce 18th century copy of Charmeton's rare "Diverses corniches choisies sur l'anticque", originally issued in 30 plates in c. 1670 (cf. Guilmard, 68). Pfeffel decided to issue only a selection of the designs. - Very rare: the only three complete copies of Danhauser's work located in libraries worldwide are at Augsburg (cf. KVK), Dumbarton Oaks (cf. OCLC), and the National Gallery, Washington (cf. Millard, Northern, no. 18). The Bavarian State Library and the British Library have only the first part; Olschki, Choix, 645 offered a copy with the second part, but lacked 2 plates in that part. - First leaf with near-contemporary aristocratic illegible ownership stamp. A fine architectural sammelband in excellent fresh condition with the plates in strong impressions, all printed an thick paper. {BN#44849}

First edition. - Presentation copy from the library of the British architect William Cecil Marshall (1849-1921), inscribed to him on the half-title ("From the Author") by a clerk at the publisher's, and with Marshall's autograph ownership above that. Darwin and Marshall had corresponded over insectivorous plants the previous year (cf. Darwin Correspondence Project no. 9627F, letter dated 7 Sept. [1874]). In 1876 Darwin would engage the architect's services to build an extension to Down House on the north side (a billiard room with dressing room and bedroom above). - Extremeties worn; front marbled flyleaf weakened. Still an appealing copy. {BN#45523}

Dillenius, Johann Jacob. Historia muscorum: A General History of Land and... Water [...] Mosses and Corals, containing all the known species, exhibited by about 1000 figures, on 85 large Royal 4to Cooper Plates, collected, drawn and engraved in the best manner from the originals [...]. London, J. Millan, 1768. London, J. Millan, 1768. Large 4to. (2), 13, (1), 10 pp. With 85 engr. plates. Contemp. calf with giltstamped label to richly gilt spine. Leading edges gilt.

EUR 1,800.00

Second edition of this principal work, first published in 1741. Dillenius is considered the founder of scientific investigation of cryptogams, especially mosses (cf. Hirsch/H. II, 271). "The beginning of bryology. The exact descriptions of the species, as well as the excellent illustrations, drawn and engraved by himself, made his 'historia muscorum' a standard work, not superseded for many years" (cf. NDB III, 718). - Binding slightly rubbed and bumped; small defect to spine. A good, wide-margined copy; the engravings printed in good impressions. With signature and heraldic bookplate of Otto Leiner. {BN#11203}

Rare Berlin anatomical dissertation about the female breast. With a life of the author (born in Oppeln in 1802; died 1852), a son of the professor of obstetrics, Jacob Dziatzko, on pp. 38f. - Some brownstaining and waterstaining throughout. {BN#46160}

First edition. - Second volume only of this comprehensive two-volume manual by the chemist and pharmacist Ehrmann, issued from 1841 to 1842. Intended for laymen, it describes basic principles of chemistry as well as compounds and processes relevant to everyday life. - Binding rubbed, lightly scuffed, inner hinges worn. Plates wrinkled. A few pages near the end uncut, first pages brownstained. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel. {BN#48797}

10 of a total of 36 "Sonderausgaben aus den Sitzungsberichten" published under Einstein's name between 1914 and 1932. Such offprints of the session reports of the Academy of Sciences (largely with independent pagination) were presented to the author by the publisher in a limited number as vouchers or dedication copies. - The present offprints date from Einstein's middle and late period at the Berlin Academy. They mainly treat the connection between gravity and electricity/electromagnetism. Einstein strove for a "unified field theory", as the General Theory of Relativity did not allow for properly integrating the electromagnetic field into the geometry of space-time. After a first attempt at a solution in 1925, Einstein tackled the problem again three years later, "only to find that Riemann's conception of space, on which the general theory was based, would not permit of a common explanation of electromagnetic and gravitational phenomena. In a series of papers devoted to the development of 'A Uniform Theory of Gravitation and Electricity' he outlined a new theory of space with a view to the unification of all forms of activity that fall within the sphere of physics, giving them a common explanation. All that would then remain to complete a scientific unison is the correlation of the organic and inorganic" (PMM 416). - The present offprints reach from the first publication after the Nobel Prize to the last but one before Einstein's leaving Germany. Three articles were published in collaboration with Einstein's assistant, Walter Mayer. - One issue with slight crease to front cover, otherwise very fine throughout. {BN#2268}

Second edition of the 1770 first edition, this edition printed in Lund, Sweden. This introduction to algebra by the Swiss mathematician and physician Leonhard Euler (1707-83), a prominent member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and co-father of mathematical analysis, was "published in many editions in English, Dutch, Italian, French, and Russian, [and] greatly influenced nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts on the subject" (DSB). Giving explanations of different types of arithmetical operations, including fractions, logarithms and equations with one or several unknowns, this work also discusses general mathematical analysis and proportion and offers many examples throughout the text. A third part, containing additions by Joseph-Louis de Lagrange, would be issued in 1796. - 19th century ownership in ink to flyleaf ("Edmund Mehs 1873"). Binding lightly scuffed, paper slightly browned throughout, some brownstains on pp. 179f. of part II; a flaw to lower flyleaf. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel, with his ownership stamp to front pastedown. {BN#48882}